Category: Health-care Policy
Will all types of contraceptives be covered? How about vasectomies? Tubal ligations? If a procedure requires hospitalization, will that be covered, too?
You can be healthy well beyond 60, but you’ll be different than you were when you were 20. You’ll have different posture, wrinkles and a lot of other changes that are less obvious but age appropriate. We have to be very, very careful about calling any difference from when we were younger an illness or a disease. And we have to be even more careful about telling people that we have things we can do to “fix” these differences, but this happens all the time. That’s the medicalization of aging.
Every year doctors are threatened with drastic cuts in Medicare payments, and every year Congress eventually steps in to pass a temporary “fix”. — Where did this problem come from and why doesn’t it go away? An FAQ to answer your questions.
Does the GOP want to have a “moral” veto over your health insurance? Is U.S. healthcare already ‘socialized’? What’s it like to work as a home health aide?
Increases in copayments of only a few dollars led to declines in the use of several healthcare services for the children they affected, according to a new study. Use of services with no increase in copayments did not decline.
On the Republican campaign trail, the Massachusetts health reform law that many now call “Romneycare” is routinely trashed. But a recent poll finds that Massachusetts residents favor the law — with 62 percent supporting the law and only 33 percent opposing it.
On the campaign trail, GOP presidential candidates denounce the Massachusetts health reform law signed by then Gov. Romney as an “abject failure” but the state’s current governor calls it “a terrific success” — and popular support for the law is strong.
President Obama has revised the rule requiring that insurance plans offer free contraception, so that religious-affiliated groups don’t have to take responsibility for the coverage.
Most insurance plans allow you to visit an out-of-network doctor or hospital, but it is very likely to cost you more — possibly a lot more.
Hospitals using their patients’ health and financial records to help pitch their most lucrative services, such as cancer, heart and orthopedic care and buying detailed information about local residents compiled by marketing firms — everything from age, income and marital status to shopping habits and whether they have children or pets at home.
The FDA recently hit the American Red Cross with a nearly $10 million fine for safety violations, lax oversight and faulty testing of its blood services. The fine is just the latest of more than a dozen the Red Cross has racked up in the last decade.
The federal health law set up new plans that are cheaper and more comprehensive than the older ones run by states but consumers need to go without insurance for six months to qualify.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Seattle Times Health News
Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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